Supervisors elect new chair

The Chickasaw County Board of Supervisors has a new chairman after Jacob Hackman was elected to the post during the first meeting of the year on Tuesday.

Hackman, who began his second year on the board, was elected by a 4-1 vote, with Steve Geerts dissenting.

Geerts nominated Tim Zoll, who served as chairman in 2017, but that nomination died for the lack of a second. Meanwhile, Hackman’s was nominated to the post by Dan Carolan and seconded by David Tilkes before being approved by the full board.

Zoll was then elected vice-chairman to kick off what was basically an organizational meeting for the coming year.

But the meeting did have a few contentious moments.

As board members went through committee assignments, Carolan and Tilkes both wanted to make sure Geerts didn’t have a “conflict of interest” by serving on board such as the E911 panel.

“I don’t really understand where that came from except that Jake asked me about it once,” Geerts said. “There’s no conflict at all.”

New Hampton Mayor Deb Larsen attended the meeting and wholeheartedly supported Geerts, who also serves as her city’s fire chief, serving on the boards.

“Steve does a great job,” she said. “He’s very knowledgable and his expertise is needed.”

Board members also brought up questions about a resolution for “prior payment of bills.”

The board approves claims every other week, and the resolution gives Knoll’s office the ability to pay bills that are due before the claims are considered by supervisors.